Thursday, August 20, 2009

My mother has always told me that I am related to everyone buried in Coxburg Cemetery. On a recent trip to Mississippi, I photographed most of the grave stones in that cemetery, not knowing for certain what relation I am to many of those buried there. I simply took my mother's word for it. After several months now of trying to determine the relationships of these families to my Netherland, Pettus, and Trigleth relatives, also buried there, I had a stroke of luck.

On Tuesday evening, I opened my email to find a message from a reader named Jeannie Wallis Bowser. Jeannie had found my blogs and wanted to tell me that we are Netherland cousins. On Wednesday, I called Jeannie and we talked at length about our Netherland connections, her paternal grandmother Amabel Netherland Wallis and her brother, Ralph Ernest Netherland, my maternal grandfather. I plan to write about some of this Netherland family information that Jeannie was kind enough to share, in future posts on my other blog, Mississippi Memories.

Because I had taken photographs of grave stones in Coxburg Cemetery, I was able to email photos of Wallis grave markers to Jeannie, who resides in another state.

Fannie W. Wallis - b. 1873, d. 1955

J. Thomas Wallis - b. 1870, d. 1932

Grave Marker of Charles Otto Wallis, husband of Elnora Brown

Born Mar. 13, 1900; Died October 18, 1978

William C. Wallis, b. 1893, d. 1932

Amabel Netherland Wallis, b. 1894, d. 1983

Known as "Amy" to her family, Amabel was my mother's aunt, my great-aunt, and Jeannie's paternal grandmother. Buried next to Amabel is her husband, William C. ("Clarence") Wallis. The couple were parents of five children, including Jeannie's father. Although Amy lived until she was almost 90 years old, Clarence died before he was 40.